Volunteers find artefacts in dig near Stonehenge

Volunteers Holly Hitchins and Helen Zheng have been introduced to archaeological techniques

Artefacts made by people living at least 5,000 years ago have been found at an archaeological dig.

Volunteers and experts at the Amesbury 2025 Dig in Wiltshire are both local and from overseas, with some coming from as far as America.

Amesbury is close to Stonehenge and a site called Blick Mead, where previous excavations have revealed evidence of the people and animals in the area long before the famous stones were erected.

This site is in a field close to the middle of the town which experts believe would have been an island in a large river thousands of years ago.

Professor David Jacques has been part of many previous digs at nearby site Blick Mead

The finds tent has been filled with flints used by people thousands of years ago, and items from the Medieval period, such as roof tiles.

Professor David Jacques, from the University of Buckingham, who has handled lots of excavations in the area, explained activity at the site has found items pre-Stonehenge, but also up to later periods.

He said: "We've benefited from having a geophysical survey of this island and it's picked up on some hotspots for us to excavate.

"It's part of the Mesolithic Avon Valley project that a number of universities are involved in."

Flints worked by people living in the area thousands of years ago have been found

Some of the volunteers, like Helen Zheng, had never worked on a dig before.

She said: "They put a trowel in our hands and we just went on. They've taught us everything - from how to square up a test pit to how to identify layers and when to start digging and when to stop digging."

Julie Sauter - from America - added: "It just makes me think of all the people who came before us. We just need to acknowledge their humanity"

Volunteers have been carefully sifting and cleaning finds too

Julia Doig, from the Amesbury History Centre, which has organised a week of events alongside the dig, said about 80 volunteers have been involved in the excavations and hundreds of members of the community have engaged with the programme.